Main themes from Council meetings

Council for the Civil Society Development (8^th Assembly - 2024 - 2027)

4th Session held on 17 March 2025

1. Adopting the Agenda of the 4^th Session
2. Adopting the Minute of the 8^th Assembly 3^rd Session
3. Election of the Council’s Vice president
4. Report on the work of the Council in the year 2024
5. The Regulation on the Criteria for determining beneficiaries and the method of distribution of part of the income from games of chance for the year 2025
6. Presentation of the results of the Survey among CSOs on the Council’s role and effectiveness

The Session was held alive and was broadcast on the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs (GOfNGOs) YouTube channel.
 
Jelena Princivali informed the gathered that the Decision on amending the Decision of establishing of the Council for the Civil Society Development was adopted by the Croatian Government on its Session held on 7 March 2025. The GOfNGOs sent the memo with the named Decision to all the State Administration Bodies requesting for the appointment of members and deputy members of the Council in the name of the State administration to the Council for bodies that have been newly constituted or changed the name and asked for urgent action.
 
Gabrijela Medunić-Orlić has drawn attention that as a deputy member for a long time, she has also been covering the place of a member of the Council for associations in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development for a long time, which has been representing a great organisational challenge for her.
Helena Beus responded that the GOfNGOs will publish a repeated public call for the named field.

As for the Council’s vice president, the state administration representatives agreed upon that the candidate for that position would be Domagoj Mikulić, state secretary in the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds and he was eventually elected by unanimous vote.

Jelena Princivali introduced the attendees with the Council for the Civil Society Development report for the year 2024.
Gabrijela Medunić-Orlić giving comments on the Report, also ask question on the steps for adopting the National Plan.
Helena Beus replied that the procedure of referring of the National plan for Creating Enabling Environment for the Civil Society Development to the Working Group have extended because the GOfNGOs was waiting for the last information on funding of associations to update the National Plan proposal. Inform in addition that the thematic session of the Council on the NP will be organised but that would not be the next one due to the fact the Report on the Rule of Law has already been suggested.
 
The Council’s president Danko Relić inform the attendees, the Draft of the Regulation on the Criteria for determining beneficiaries and the method of distribution of part of the income from games of chance for the year 2025 was prepared on the basis of the sectoral analysis and the real needs of the civil society.

Helena Beus introduced the attendees into the novelties regarding Regulation:
1. deleting the point 4. from the previous Regulation
2. introducing the new obligation for the donors to reporting on the month level with the view of helping to the GOfNGOs in preparing the future drafts of the Regulation
 
Danijela Stepić, state treasurer in the Ministry of Finance stated that the Ministry supported the drafting proposal of the Regulation through defining of the financial indicators and envisaged criteria, taking into account the revenue of gaming revenue and their distribution last year. Also, the total defined allocation was even greater than the envisaged budget and its balance including the available funds, i.e. funds not spent in the previous year. The Ministry fully support the GOfNGOs, as well as welcomes introducing a monthly reporting for the donors.
 
It was stated that there should be a correction of the current percentage regarding some areas due to the increased needs (the new measures envisaged for the Immigration Department in the newly established Ministry for Demography and Immigration, the Calls in the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth intended to the CSOs projects and programmes in the area of abusing drugs and prevention of violence among children, CSOs dealing with youth). The already introduced higher percentage for the area of sport was welcomed by the representatives of the relevant area in the Council (Ministry and CSOs).
Also, the general comment was stated for determining again the reel needs in order to define the strategic areas so as to allocate the funds, as well as the need for earlier drafting the proposal of the Regulation.
 
Helena Beus, thanking to all suggestions and comments emphasized that the new mechanism would enable better and faster preparation of the Regulation draft proposal in the future.
 
As for the presentation of the Survey among the CSOs on the Council’s role and effectiveness results, the attendees were informed the Survey was implemented among 90 CSOs. According to the results, most of the organisations consider that the communication between the Council and the associations should be better with the focus on the thematic sessions regarding the area of funding and sustainability of funding, as well as the need to adopting the National plan as the strategic document. The regrets have been expressed the Survey had not been submitted to the greater number of associations due to the fact there are some 47.000 associations in Croatia. However that Survey was not intended to be an scientific research and was send via social networks.
 
It was suggested for the next Council’s session to be held on 24 April 2025.


3^rd Session held on 27 November 2024

1. Adopting the Agenda of the 3^rd Session
2. Adopting the Minutes of the 1^st Session of the 8^th Assembly
3. Adopting the Minutes of the 2^nd Session of the 8^th Assembly
4. Presenting of the Civil Society programme of the Second Swiss Contribution within the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme
5. AOB

Jelena Princivali presented the named Programme, but also the previous programme. The Swiss contribution is aimed at new EU members and is an expression of Swiss solidarity with Europe in order to reduce economic and social inequalities in the EU. The programme supports activities through the financing of programmes and projects in various areas. Apart from the projects themselves, the value of the Programme lies in the strengthening of bilateral cooperation with Swiss partners and organizations, which is reflected in the exchange of experiences ad good practices.
The Second Swiss Contribution is built on the results of the Firs Swiss Contribution (implemented from 2017 till 2024) within which 7,48 million Swiss francs were provided for CSOs in our country as an incentive for the cooperation of Croatian and Swiss non-profit organisations and the promotion of civil society’s contribution to economic and social cohesion. During the programme implementation, the GOfNGOs had a dual function, as an Intermediary Body and an Executive Agency, i.e. as one body responsible for the whole process, from programming and publishing a Call, selection of projects till monitoring of the implementation, as well as a support to Beneficiaries till the end of the implementation.
In the framework of two Swiss Grants in total 52 projects in which implementation participated were 104 CSOs, 114 primary and secondary schools, 19 units of local/regional self-government and 14 institutions were funded.
 
Framework Agreement on implementation of the Second Swiss Contribution for the period 2019-2029 between the Republic of Croatia and Swiss Confederation were signed on 18 October 2022. The Act on confirmation of the Framework Agreement between the Croatian Government and the Swiss Federal Council on implementation of the Second Swiss Contribution for the selected EU member states for the reduction of economic and social inequalities with the EU entered into force on 17 May 2023.
By this the preconditions have been reached for using 45,7 million of Swiss Francs of the Second Swiss Contribution for funding 4 programmes.
Within the Civil Society Programme envisaged were 7.6 million CHF for 4 Calls for Proposals that will deal with themes of education for sustainable development, volunteering, micro projects and service learning.
The overall goal is building democratic structures and processes through civil engagement in order to reduce of economic and social inequalities.
 
The presentation
 
Stela Fišer Marković from the Office of the Swiss Contribution at the Swiss Embassy in the Republic of Croatia said the Swiss Government and the Swiss Embassy support civil society in the context of the development of democracy. The Switzerland itself is known for its democracy and the involvement of citizens in the formation and adoption of public policies. She emphasized the it is necessary to capitalise experiences within this projects due to funds are limited and it will not be possible to finance a large number of associations, but systematic support for the development of civil society would be ensured. She invited associations to actively participate in the consultation, which runs until 6 December 2024. Based on that, they will see what can be done to strengthen the governing body, the GOfNGOs and, civil society as a whole.


2^nd (special) Session held on 6 March 2024
 
Discussion on the Draft Proposal of the Regulation on the Criteria for determining beneficiaries and the method of distribution of part of the income from games of chance for the year 2024

Helena Beus informed the presented members and deputies on the e Consultation of the named document, in duration of 8 days and, that due to the urgency of adopting the Rules in order not to be late in implementing calls and funding of CSOs projects and programs, so as settle financial obligations from multi-year programmes.
 
1st (Constitute) Session held on 22 January 2024

1. Adopting the Council for the Civil Society Development Rules of Procedure
2. Election of the Council’s president
3. AOB - Helena Beus, authorised to perform the duties of the Head of the Government for Cooperation with NGOs, announced the emergency special session on lottery funds. She also informed on the session regarding the National plan for creating Enabling Environment for the Civil Society Development for the period 2024 - 20030.

Council for the Civil Society Development (7^th Assembly - 2020 - 2023)
 
5^th Session (online) 23 July 2021

1. Adopting the Agenda of the 5^th Council’s Session
2. Adopting the Minutes of the 1^st (constituent), 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th Council’s Sessions
3. Programming of the EU funds and the whole institutional framework for the use of the European Structural and Investment Funds (permanent agenda item)
4. Problems in implementation of ESF projects for non-boundaries of the Public Procurement Act
5. Employment Aid to acquire the First Work experience in civil society organisations
6. Including salary expenses in Calls for public needs programmes in culture of the Ministry of Culture and Media

The Session was moved to a virtual space due to the current epidemiological situation. The Session was recorded and broadcasts live through the GOfNGOs YouTube channel


4th (special) online Session held on 15 April 2021
The Session was moved to a virtual space due to the current epidemiological situation. The Session was recorded and broadcasts live through the GOfNGOs YouTube channel
Agenda: Presentation of the National Recovery and Resilience plan.

3^rd (special) online Session held on 16 December 2020
 
Draft Proposal of the Regulation on the Criteria for determining beneficiaries and the method of distribution of part of the income from games of chance for the year 2021
 
The Session was moved to a virtual space due to the current epidemiological situation. The Session was recorded and broadcasts live through the GOfNGOs YouTube Channel.
 
The Session was chaired by the Head of the GOfNGOs, Helena Beus, since the President of the Council, Danko Relić, apologised. This special Session was called due to the urgency and deadlines related to the adoption of the named Regulation in order to discuss the Regulation  Draft Proposal and to give opinion to it.


2^nd regular session held on 23 October 2020

1. Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic to the CSOs work
2. National Recovery and Resilience Plan
3. Financing of CSOs programmes in the next financial perspective of the EU

1. Multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027 - programming and structure of managing
2. Programming of European Social Fund for the period 2021-20207
3. Information on the Union programme: Citizen, Equality, Rights and Values and the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs in its programming

4. AOB

1^st (constitute) session held on 20 May 2020

1. Adopting the Council for the Civil Society Development (CCSD) Rules of Procedure
2. Election of the Council president and deputy president (Danko Relić as the Council president and Nikolina Klaić as his deputy were elected)
3. AOB - Election of one CSOs representative as the member of the Croatian Employment Service Supervisory Council. In addition, the CCSD members and deputies were informed that the next session aimed at electing the CSOs representatives in the European Economic and Social Committee will be organised ASAP.

​Council for Civil Society Development (6th assembly - 2017-2020)   

1st Regular Session (16/03/2017)


Council for Civil Society Development (4th assembly - 2010-2012)        

1.  Draft Report of financing projects and programmes of CSOs from public budget in 2010.
2.  Opinion of Council for the Development of Civil Society on implementation of The Draft Curriculum of Civic Education
3.  The Role of CSOs in offering Development Assistance
4.  Elections and appointments in Working Bodies

1. Civil society in Croatian television program content

1. Progress in system building of Regulatory Impact Assessment
2. Implementation plan for Project of Technical Assistance for CSOs in Croatia (TACSO) 2011.-2013.
3. Information about working on National Strategy for the creation of an enabling environment for Civil Society Development 2012.-2016